Combat Press Men’s MMA Rankings: April 18, 2016

As MMA continues to grow its presence with the UFC, Bellator MMA, WSOF and ONE FC, fighters are constantly jockeying for position in the eyes (and rankings) of the media.

Every week, Combat Press will rank each weight class from heavyweight to flyweight, as well as the pound-for-pound rankings (including both genders).

Note: the numbers in parentheses represent the fighter’s ranking from last week.

Heavyweight

Fabricio Werdum (1)

Cain Velasquez (2)

Stipe Miocic (3)

Alistair Overeem (4)

Junior dos Santos (5)

Ben Rothwell (6)

Andrei Arlovski (7)

Travis Browne (8)

Josh Barnett (9)

Mark Hunt (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Light Heavyweight

Jon Jones (1)

Daniel Cormier (2)

Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (3)

Alexander Gustafsson (4)

Phil Davis (5)

Glover Teixeira (6)

Ryan Bader (7)

Ovince Saint Preux (8)

Liam McGeary (9)

Jimi Manuwa (10)

It was a strong weekend for Brazil’s Glover Teixeira, who needed less than a round to knock out former UFC champion Rashad Evans in the UFC on Fox 19 main event. The win solidifies Teixeira’s No. 6 spot in our rankings and his callout of No. 3-ranked Anthony “Rumble” Johnson could provide fireworks later in the year.

Middleweight

Luke Rockhold (1)

Chris Weidman (2)

Yoel Romero (3)

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (4)

Vitor Belfort (5)

Lyoto Machida (6)

Michael Bisping (7)

Anderson Silva (8)

Derek Brunson (9)/Robert Whittaker (9)

David Branch (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Welterweight

Robbie Lawler (1)

Carlos Condit (2)

Ben Askren (3)

Rory MacDonald (4)

Matt Brown (5)

Stephen Thompson (6)

Johny Hendricks (7)

Tyron Woodley (8)

Demian Maia (9)

Neil Magny (10)

ONE Championship titleholder Ben Askren returned to action at Global Rivals in the Philippines and “Funky” went the distance with Russian Nikolay Aleksakhin. With another successful title defense, Askren continues to stake claim to the title of the best fighter not under contract with a North American promotion.

Lightweight

Rafael dos Anjos (1)

Khabib Nurmagomedov (2)

Donald Cerrone (3)

Eddie Alvarez (4)

Anthony Pettis (5)

Gilbert Melendez (6)

Will Brooks (7)

Tony Ferguson (8)

Nate Diaz (9)

Justin Gaethje (10)

The “Eagle” is back. After a lengthy injury hiatus, Khabib Nurmagomedov returned to action at UFC on Fox 19, where he earned a second-round finish of newcomer Darrell Horcher. Although Horcher may not have the name value as Nurmagomedov’s original opponent, Tony Ferguson, a win is still a win. The Dagestani fighter made it clear he wants a shot at champion Rafael dos Anjos, whom he previous defeated.

Featherweight

Conor McGregor (1)

José Aldo (2)

Frankie Edgar (3)

Chad Mendes (4)

Max Holloway (5)

Ricardo Lamas (6)

Cub Swanson (7)

Charles Oliveira (8)

Daniel Straus (9)

Patricio Freire (10)/Dennis Bermudez (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Bantamweight

Dominick Cruz (1)

T.J. Dillashaw (2)

Renan Barão (3)

Urijah Faber (4)

Bibiano Fernandes (5)

Raphael Assuncao (6)

Marlon Moraes (7)

Marcos Galvao (8)

Thomas Almeida (9)

Aljamain Sterling (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Flyweight

Demetrious Johnson (1)

Joseph Benavidez (2)

Ian McCall (4)

Henry Cejudo (5)

Jussier “Formiga” da Silva (6)

Zach Makovsky (7)

Kyoji Horiguchi (8)

John Moraga (9)

Wilson Reis (10)

Dustin Ortiz (-)

Dropped from the rankings: John Dodson (3)

The flyweight division lost one of its contenders at UFC on Fox 19. Third-ranked John Dodson moved back to bantamweight to obliterate fellow The Ultimate Fighter alum Manny Gamburyan. As such, Dodson has been removed from the 125-pound ranks. That opened the door for Dustin Ortiz to crack the rankings at No. 10.

Pound-For-Pound

Demetrious Johnson (1)

Jon Jones (2)

Robbie Lawler (3)

Daniel Cormier (4)

Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino (5)

Fabricio Werdum (6)

Luke Rockhold (7)

Dominick Cruz (8)

Rafael dos Anjos (9)

Conor McGregor (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Editor’s Note: Fighters are eligible to be ranked if they have competed in the last 18 months. Any fighter that chooses to switch weight classes will be ranked in their previous weight class until they have competed in their new division.

About The Author

Rob Tatum has been covering combat sports since 2009. He provides radio content for Between Rounds Radio and his past work has appeared on Bleacher Report, MMA DieHards, MMAinterviews and The MMA Corner. Prior to covering combat sports, Rob ran his own music website from 2002-2009. Beyond his writing, Rob has trained in both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai. He is a Colorado native that works as a mechanical engineer during the day. In his free time, Rob enjoys watching sports, playing music and working on cars.